Can any one recommend a good place to find quality value overnight stops in boarding houses or anything other than the souless Travel Inns and Welcome Breaks. I spend way too much time driving around the UK, attending a meeting etc then have to spend the night in a boring naff hotel.
I want to see some of the areas that I visit not just sit in a motorway hotel listening to the traffic. Heres the question:
Is there a central resource for good quality B&B stops around the UK which cater for business travellers?
Budget is not huge though!
PS Im off to Stafford next week, any good examples there?
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\" Keep doing the same old thing, youll get the same old thing, try something different today!\"
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Try
www.smoothound.co.uk/
a friend who had a guest house in Leeds was listed on here before he sold up. Most of his customers were business travellers.
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Buy the Good Pub Guide (not to be confused with the Good Beer Guide).
It shows pubs that offer accomodation - excellent stuff.
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Agree with Mark - working for the Government, we're supposed to use a booking agency that usually comes up with overpriced rooms in characterless hotel chains.
I like to trawl the internet for pubs with accomodation - the last two I've found through Yell, both pubs had their own websites - room prices around £35 - £60 are typical and the food generally OK. Might have to go without the trouser press and bourbon creams though.
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Gave up on the souless hotels years ago. I always go to small B&Bs now even when my nights out are funded from external sources
20 to 24 quid a night in a nice private house, clean linen, fresh paint and breakfast to die for. Rarely diappointed and save a packet for the firm as well. Always book through the local Tourist Information. Can't go wrong.
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For a good few years I have been using farmhouse B & Bs in Wiltshire. Now, though, I find it hard to get a booking. One of my regular hosts explained that her rooms are being block-booked for months ahead by commercial outfits, because it's cheaper than putting up the reps in hotels.
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PS. This may not be typical. In the case of Wiltshire, the M4 corridor may have something to do with it, but I'm finding it harder and harder to get bookings elsewhere now.
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Have a look at websites such as:
www.bedandbreakfasts-uk.co.uk/
www.travelguides.com/
www.welcomingyou.co.uk/
There are many more.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Buy the Good Pub Guide (not to be confused with the Good Beer Guide). It shows pubs that offer accomodation - excellent stuff.
Must agree with Mark (on this one!)
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As does the Good Beer Guide - and rather better in my experience...........
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>Buy the Good Pub Guide (not to be confused with the Good Beer Guide).
Why not buy both?
WTM
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As a Tourist I always seek out B & B's. They're easy to find if you ask around wherever it is you want to spend the night (this is the key - I can't ever remember having trouble finding one), have generally friendly personalised service and you usually get a respectable breakfast as opposed to the microwaved greasy cardboard the motels serve up.
Last tour of S. England I did on a Harley 2 years ago IIRC correctly the most I ever paid was 30 quid for a night plus a couple of beers and an evening snack.
Why the UK can't emulate US standards for motel beats me.
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Agree with recommendation for smoothound.com.
Had to go to Coventry about 18 months ago to the headquarters of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (for a seminar, not to be told off!) and when I asked about local hotels I was advised to go to a large hotel at £100 per night plus meals and breakfast. I didn't want to go there as it is owned by a client and I know how he operates.................
So looked at smoothound and found a lovely little b&b within a spit of HQ for £25, en-suite great breakfast and lovely company.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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The Ramblers Association publish a good B&B guide. From memory all the entries are by recommendation only
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Try www.laterooms.com
I've always managed to get good places through them.
I'll be using them more often in my new job....
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Fiat Uno 60S, Rover 214SEi, 306 2.0 SE Cabriolet - Currently carless
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SWMBO does B & B in Cambridgeshire, just off the A1 in the Peterborough/Stamford area*. Many delighted guests! Quite a few arrive via the village shop/post office, so that's one way to find accommodation; another is the local pub, provided it doesn't do B & B itself! Also, try ukvillages.com and click on the "stay in the area" link. If you contact a B & B and it's booked up, you will be passed on to someone else... that's what village life is all about!
*Yes, you can... if you ask nicely! ;-)
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Hotel booking agents can be good. I always use a company called QEB Countrywide who have found me some really good hotels throughout the country from as low as £40
You can get their number off the internet ( I don't know if you are allowed to post the number on here )
If memory serves me right you can specify what you like, such as a gym or real ale ....or both
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If your travels bring you as far as Ireland, try the Jameson guide or the Blue Book - both list B&Bs and small family run hotels - usually as highly rated for their food as their accomodation.
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Type 'b&b Falmouth" or wherever into google and it comes up with links - found a great place near St. Ives on the Thurs. before last Bank Holiday that even took the dog! Found this system from a friend who is on the road all the time and spends 20 mins on the internet each Sunday evening booking up for the following four nights.
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